Show labels on layers

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Display custom labels on a feature layer.

screenshot

Use case

Labeling features is useful to visually display a key piece of information or attribute of a feature on a map. For example, you may want to label rivers or street with their names.

How to use the sample

Pan and zoom around the United States. Labels for congressional districts will be shown in red for Republican districts and blue for Democrat districts. Notice how labels pop into view as you zoom in.

How it works

To show custom labels on a feature layer:

  1. Create a FeatureLayer and ServiceFeatureTable by passing in a URL to the REST endpoint of a map service.
  2. Create an ArcadeLabelExpression for the label definition.
    • You can use fields of the feature by using $feature.field_name in the expression.
  3. Create a TextSymbol to control how the label text is styled.
  4. Create a LabelDefinition from the ArcadeLabelExpression and TextSymbol.
  5. Add the LabelDefinition to the list of LabelDefinitions in the FeatureLayer instance.
  6. Enable labels on the FeatureLayer by setting labelsEnabled to true.

Relevant API

  • ArcadeLabelExpression
  • FeatureLayer
  • LabelDefinition
  • TextSymbol

About the data

This sample uses the USA 116th Congressional Districts feature layer hosted on ArcGIS Online.

Additional information

Help regarding the Arcade label expression script for defining a label definition can be found on the ArcGIS Developers site.

Tags

attribute, deconfliction, label, labeling, string, symbol, text, visualization

Sample Code

ShowLabelsOnLayers.qml
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// [WriteFile Name=ShowLabelsOnLayers, Category=DisplayInformation]
// [Legal]
// Copyright 2018 Esri.

// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
// You may obtain a copy of the License at
// http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
// limitations under the License.
// [Legal]

import QtQuick 2.6
import Esri.ArcGISRuntime 100.15

Rectangle {
    id: rootRectangle
    clip: true
    width: 800
    height: 600

    MapView {
        id: mapView
        anchors.fill: parent

        Component.onCompleted: {
            // Set the focus on MapView to initially enable keyboard navigation
            forceActiveFocus();
        }

        Map {
            Basemap {
                initStyle: Enums.BasemapStyleArcGISLightGray
            }

            FeatureLayer {
                // Add a feature service
                ServiceFeatureTable {
                    url: "https://services.arcgis.com/P3ePLMYs2RVChkJx/arcgis/rest/services/USA_115th_Congressional_Districts/FeatureServer/0"
                }

                // Enable Labels
                labelsEnabled: true

                // Add a label definition to define labels for the layer
                //
                // (1) The 'ArcadeLabelExpression' defines that the label text displayed comes from the fields 'NAME',
                //     the first letter of 'PARTY' (R or D), and 'CDFIPS' in the feature service in the format:
                //         Firstname Lastname (R or D)
                //         District #
                // (2) The 'textSymbol' for the labeled text will be red (for Republican) or blue (for Democrat) with a white halo, in the center of the polygon.
                // (3) The 'whereClause' restricts the labels to data from Republican or Democrat districts.

                LabelDefinition {
                    id: republicanJson

                    expression: ArcadeLabelExpression {
                        expression: "$feature.NAME + ' (' + left($feature.PARTY,1) + ') \\nDistrict ' + $feature.CDFIPS"
                    }

                    textSymbol: TextSymbol {
                        size: 11
                        color: "red"
                        haloColor: "white"
                        haloWidth: 2
                        horizontalAlignment: Enums.HorizontalAlignmentCenter
                        verticalAlignment: Enums.VerticalAlignmentMiddle
                    }

                    whereClause: "PARTY = 'Republican'"
                }

                LabelDefinition {
                    id: democratJson

                    expression: ArcadeLabelExpression {
                        expression: "$feature.NAME + ' (' + left($feature.PARTY,1) + ') \\nDistrict ' + $feature.CDFIPS"
                    }

                    textSymbol: TextSymbol {
                        size: 11
                        color: "blue"
                        haloColor: "white"
                        haloWidth: 2
                        horizontalAlignment: Enums.HorizontalAlignmentCenter
                        verticalAlignment: Enums.VerticalAlignmentMiddle
                    }

                    whereClause: "PARTY = 'Democrat'"
                }

                // zoom to the layer once it loads
                onLoadStatusChanged: {
                    if (loadStatus === Enums.LoadStatusLoaded)
                        mapView.setViewpointCenterAndScale(fullExtent.center, 56759600);
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

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